Forward Air’s 4Q Income Falls

Forward Air Corp. said its fourth-quarter profit fell to $6.4 million, or 22 cents per share, from $8.3 million, or 29 cents, a year ago.

Revenue fell 4.4% to $118 million, the company said in a statement Monday.

“We are pleased with our fourth quarter results which provided an encouraging finish to a year of unprecedented challenges,” said Bruce Campbell, Forward Air’s chairman and chief executive officer.

“Although we were encouraged by the trends that started at the end of the third quarter and which continued throughout the fourth quarter, we remain very cautious, yet optimistic, in our outlook for 2010,” he said in a statement.

For the full year, income dropped to $9.9 million, or 34 cents a share, from $42.5 million, or $1.47 per share, in 2008.

Revenue fell 12% in the year, to $417.4 million.

Forward Air, a contractor to the air cargo industry, is ranked No. 54 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.